Daniel Defoe

Life is hard for Moll Flanders. As a teenager, Moll is seduced and marries young. When her husband dies a few years later, leaving Moll and her children without support, Moll embarks on a quest to find a man with money.

Irreverent and ironic, this 1726 satire by the author of Robinson Crusoe examines the evolution of evil and the rise of the historical force known as "the devil." Daniel Defoe's passionate and perceptive survey starts with Satan's origins, chronicling the devil's presence in the Bible and his growing sway over humanity. An overview of satanic influences on eighteenth-century life follows, focusing on monarchs and tyrants as well as common folk. Defoe...

"Roxana (1724), Defoe's last and darkest novel, is the autobiography of a woman who has traded her virtue, at first for survival, and then for fame and fortune. Its narrator tells the story of her own 'wicked' life as the mistress of rich and powerful men. Endowed with many seductive skills, she is herself seduced: by money, by dreams of rank, and by the illusion that she can escape her own past. Unlike Defoe's other penitent anti-heroes, however,...

Two stories in one volume. The first story relates the fortunes of a shipwrecked family as they adapt to life on an island with abundant animal and plant life. In the second story, Robinson Crusoe learns to survive on an island following his shipwreck.